


R(ar)epair

by CalmSpirited



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, commission, i hope this isnt too ooc :), only slight mentions of naughty things, whew boy these girls wore me the heck out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalmSpirited/pseuds/CalmSpirited
Summary: Kate/Nancy goodness commission requested by yakule on A03!Have fun and nut with your mask on six feet apart so you dont infect the corona
Relationships: Kate Denson/Nancy Wheeler
Kudos: 10





	R(ar)epair

  
Sticks crunched loudly underfoot. “I can’t believe you  _ did that,  _ Kate!”

Anger flared hot in Kate’s chest as she tried to walk away from the pursuing argument. “Me? How many times were you in a  _ locker  _ when someone needed saving, huh?”

Nancy balked at her girlfriend’s implication. “I was  _ healing  _ myself in there! In case you forgot, Ghostface fucked up my back after I took a hit for you after  _ you  _ messed up!”

Eyes wide, Kate wheeled around and tilted her head back in defiance. “You didn’t have to! He was going to miss anyways.”

“You don’t know that!” Nancy had been dealing with Feng telling her that she hid in lockers too much and was a useless teammate, Nea telling her that if she brought her nose down a little bit, maybe she would see the traps she got caught in  _ a lot _ , and Nancy was reaching the limits of her patience. Kate, girlfriend or not, was not going to enjoy a fuming and irate Nancy if she didn’t quit arguing with her  _ now. _

Kate, oblivious to this fact, couldn’t let her own anger subside over an argument that she knew in the back of her mind was petty. Even though they had all died, it wasn’t  _ all  _ Nancy’s fault. Ghostface had brought good addons and a 4-kill mori, so there wasn’t a whole lot they could’ve done to get out alive, anyways. But she couldn’t stop her mean retort.

“You’re selfish.” Kate said, even surprising herself at how much vitriol was in her words. “Your perks are selfish, too. You hardly  _ ever  _ help people-”

“Excuse me?  _ I don’t help people-  _ excuse me? Your perks are all about helping  _ you  _ get away. In fact, it often rats out anybody else who happens to be near you.”

Kate opened her mouth to say something back, but then closed it once she quickly realized that Nancy was  _ right.  _ And she hated it. She  _ had  _ to say something to make herself seem less guilty.    
  
“Okay,  _ Dwight.  _ Use your sorry little excuses to make yourself feel better, I don’t care.” A sting of regret already panged painfully in Kate’s chest, but she was still too angry to apologize or show regret. The look of shock and hurt on Nancy’s face didn’t help, either, and it made Kate want to run away and hide in shame.

“If you feel that way about me, then you can fuck off!”

And that’s what she ended up doing when Nancy told her to  _ fuck off _ , but with walking instead of running. Kate hated how tears started instantly running down her cheeks, smearing her mascara and eyeliner into black trails that made her look like a psychotic killer who was dumped at prom. She could hear Nancy stomping off into the distance, and that made Kate only feel more guilty. At least, she knew, when Nancy got into lockers, it was to heal and patch up her wounds and she often came out without a scratch on her- something that Dwight hadn’t figured out how to do yet. And Nancy  _ did  _ help with the pitiful amount of generators. In fact, Nancy did most of them.

_ God _ , Kate wished that she could have a tall glass of bourbon right now, or at least some whiskey to calm her nerves and to make her forget about the whole argument. She knew that she probably relied on alcohol a little too much to be healthy, but it’s what helped the best out of anything.   
  
Apparently, the Entity was also some sort of fucking rehab specialist who knew the best way to beat Kate’s alcohol cravings: not letting her have any. She even got desperate enough to sneak a sip of the Hillbilly’s moonshine, and a single sip made her act like an alcoholic bum for hours and made her blackout. The hangover she had afterwards was enough to persuade her to not  _ ever  _ do that again, no matter how badly she craved a drink.

Wiping away the wet marks on her face and smearing her makeup even further, Kate kept stomping deeper and deeper into the forest until all she could hear was the sounds of animals in their unnatural habitat. If she strained hard enough, she could hear the sounds of the Entity surely having a  _ blast  _ at her suffering, and she threw up a mental middle finger at the spider creature.

She hadn’t meant to be so rude to Nancy, it just...happened. She was angry and frustrated and needed to vent, and her girlfriend just happened to be there when it all boiled over. Nancy didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of her vexation, and Kate knew she had no right to say those things to her. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt about it. She laughed at herself in the darkness. She was starting to sound like a bitter, washed up music star who ended up in hell for being a sellout-

No.  _ No. No, Kate. Count down to zero.  _ Kate stopped in her tracks, inhaling deepily as she counted down from five until she reached zero, and then let out a long exhale, lungs burning. Letting her dark thoughts take control of her would get her nowhere and the Entity fed a good. Malicious meal. 

As much as she wanted a drink, she knew that Nancy needed to come first. She needed to apologize to Nancy, to let her know that she truly regretted what she said and make it up to her with the limited resources provided to survivors. But she had to least  _ try  _ and do something more than just say sorry. Maybe she could give her a gift, or maybe write her a song- yeah, that would be nice! But Kate knew that she would have to cool off first before she could even  _ think  _ about writing any wholesome lyrics for her girlfriend, so she stopped where she was and sat down, listening to all the noises around her.

Her knees protesting loudly at the action, Kate’s fingers itched a familiar itch that she got when she had the urge to strum mindlessly on her guitar, but it was back at the campfire and she wasn’t in the right mindset to go back and get it. Pushing the urge to the side to focus on clearing her mind, Kate let the wilds consume her for goodness knows how long until she fell asleep, lulled into a dreamless landscape by the omnipresent fog.

///

Nancy was  _ not  _ in a good mood, to say the least. 

Unlike Kate, who had stormed off into the forest after their argument, Nancy chose the more cautious option and headed towards the campfire where she knew she would be safe from any stray monster or spider limb that would do her harm outside of a trial. Even though it meant being around more people than what she felt like being around right now, it was better to her than accidentally stumbling into a monster’s lair.

As she stepped out from the tree line and into the safety circle that surrounded the campfire, Nancy quickly counted five survivors at the campfire, two of them were the other poor, unfortunate souls that had been with her and Kate-  _ ugh, she didn’t want to think about her right now.  _

Dwight, the main locker man of the campfire squad, offered her a small wave and asked how she was doing, noting the sour look on her face without drawing attention to the less-than-pleased look adorning his own face. Nancy had to drag a response from her reluctant vocal chords and it was slow to come through.

“I’m fine. The trial was just...rough. Everyone dying didn’t help. I would feel a lot better about it if someone had at least made it through the hatch.” Nancy was overjoyed when Dwight simply nodded at her statement, giving her a soft, genuine smile and verbally agreeing with her, even offering her a shoulder to lean on if she needed it. 

“Thanks for the offer, Dwight.” She knew she wouldn’t take Dwight up on his offer, but the fact that he was kind enough to make the suggestion did make Nancy feel a little bit better. At least  _ someone  _ cared for her- no, she didn’t need to think about Kate right now. She had a tendency for her thoughts to run in circles like that.

Choosing an empty log to sit on, Nancy scooted as close to the fire as she could, enjoying the faux warmth the eternal fire put out and let her shoulders sag as emotions preyed upon her strained mind.

In a weird way, she was hoping that Steve would show up and sit next to her. Even though the babysitter was her ex, he was still an amazing (but sometimes infuriating) friend who had never let her down before. In fact, the reason why Steve had ended up in here with her was because when he had heard she had gone to the Lab all by herself, he went after her to make sure she got back alright. Ironically, neither of them made it back and had ended up in this hellhole.

This place was far worse than the Upside Down.

The seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, and Steve didn’t show up. Nancy’s mind kept circling back to the argument she had with Kate against her will, about what she had said and done, making her double guess her performance in the trial. Logically, she knew that there wasn’t much they could’ve done, not with Ghostface having  _ that  _ kind of loadout. But she guessed that  _ someone  _ had to get the blame for the whole team’s demise, and Kate wanted to make her the scapegoat.

_ Well, Kate thought wrong, _ Nancy mused to herself as she fiddled with a loose string on her sweater. Kate thought wrong as she  _ refused  _ to take all of the blame.

Hardly anyone was at the campfire now. Nea and Feng were huddled together with Meg and Quentin, playing some sort of card game with Ace, and it was clear that Ace was dealing bum hands to everyone except Meg who was loudly boasting that everyone was going to owe her a flashlight. Nancy would usually at least go over to watch at close range, but she was too lost in her own mind to get up and participate. She didn’t feel like it, anyways.

Even though she really wasn’t the one at fault here, she still felt bad for speaking so angrily to Kate. She should’ve kept her cool and not lost her temper like that. And now she felt the need to apologize. Which, like she said, was  _ stupid  _ because this was more of Kate’s fault than anyone else’s-

Nancy stood up suddenly, her knees protesting such an action but she didn’t care. Her thoughts were getting to her and she couldn’t sit still a moment longer, so she briskly walked just outside of the campfire’s field of view and then started pacing back and forth, creating trails in the dirt with her restlessness.

She didn’t deserve to be yelled at! She could point out so many things the team did wrong as a whole, and which one of them made many more mistakes than what she made. Nancy got carried away and did, in fact, start counting mistakes that everyone else had made: Dwight had dropped his flashlight and never found it again, Kate tripped over a window sill and had gotten herself grabbed, Dwight once again threw the pallet down on the wrong side, Dwight-

Nancy pinched the bridge of her nose and made herself stop  _ thinking  _ for a few moments.  _ No,  _ it wouldn’t do her any good to keep going on about other people’s mistakes when she needed to work on fixing her own. Despite still not believing that she was as much at fault as Kate thought she was, Nancy still knew an apology would be the best route to go to start patching things up with her girlfriend. The longer both of them simmered in their angry juices, the harder it would be to make any headway.

But Nancy didn’t feel like just saying  _ sorry  _ would cut it, or be really sincere. She wasn’t the greatest at saying sorry anyways. Maybe she could give her a gift. She’s not very good at physically making things with her hands like Jake is, but she’s pretty good at writing convincing articles in The Hawkins Post, so it couldn’t be too hard to write Kate something sweet in a heartfelt letter, right? It was all she could think of at the moment, and she took her notepad out of her jeans pocket with her pen tucking into the small spirals at the top and started brainstorming.

///

Kate picked at a small hole in her tight jeans until she accidentally pulled a thread loose. Swearing under her breath at making a fashionable hole look ragged and not so fashionable anymore, Kate forced herself to keep her hands at her sides as she walked towards the campfire.

It had been a little while since her little argument with Nancy, and she hadn’t seen much of her until now. She has a vague recollection of seeing her come back from a trial just as she was going into one, but that had been it. She had spent all of her spare time setting up a little area that they frequented just out of range of all the prying eyes at the fire, but still close enough to be safe into a little picnic area for her and Nancy to be at. Well, she thinks  _ picnic _ , but the few bags of chips, Twinkies and odd candy she managed to get from the trial maps tastes hardly anything like they were supposed to, but they would do.

She doubts that they would actually eat, let alone enjoy, any of the food, but it was there to emulate a sense of normality in this hellhole.

The only hump she has left to surmount now is actually working up the nerve to go up and talk to Nancy while there isn’t a million eyes prying at their private lives. Kate had already found herself stopping more than once out of hesitancy, forcing herself forward by telling herself that she couldn’t let all of her hard work setting up the little picnic area go to waste. But even still, the closer she got to the fire the more her fingers tingled out of anxiousness as her palms became damp from being pressed against her jeans for so long in the warm temperature.

She heard soft laughter coming from one side of the campfire, and got close enough to see that it was a small group of survivors hanging around Bill, who was probably telling some old war story... or something like that. If now, he was probably going on about zombies again. Her eyes scanned the gaggle of grimy people but didn’t see her girlfriend within the group which made Kate sigh in relief. She didn’t think she could handle everyone staring at her while she talked to Nancy.

Her eyes trailed from the group to the rest of the clearing, and her eyes finally landed on Nancy, leaning against a rock and writing something in her journalism notebook. Whenever the Entity gave it to her, she clung onto it like a lifeline. Kate couldn’t remember a time that when Nancy had it, she would put it down unless she needed to do something with both hands. In a way, Kate sometimes got jealous of that notebook but that was stupid because it was a  _ notebook, an inanimate object- _

Kate shook her head. No, she’s getting sidetracked and distracting herself from what she has to do. Before she could think anymore, Kate stepped out of the treeline and into the clearing, making a beeline to her girlfriend without even stopping to wave at someone who saw her and said hello. She didn’t know how it was and had no time to stop and see who it was.

No distractions this time as she came to a stop in front of Nancy, who paused in her writing only to look up at her and acknowledge her presence with a nod and went right back to writing. Her heart was racing, pounding against her ribcage like a desperate bird who wanted to break free and Kate couldn’t control, even if she wanted to.

Blood rushing in her ears in nervousness, Kate took a deep breath and braced for possible, outright rejection. “Hey.” She said, as gentle and non-threatening as she could be, and to her surprise Nancy stopped in her writing and looked up at her with wide eyes that made her heart race even faster. Kate worried that she might have a heart attack if Naacy doesn’t stop looking  _ so cute. _

“Hey.” Nancy responded back, a little bit tense but far, far gentler that what she sounded like last time they spoke, which was a good start. It gave Kate a small confidence boost.

“Look, I-” Kate started, then stopped when her confidence tanked as Nancy kept looking at her with a suspicious twinkle in her eye. Swallowing her pride and stubbornness, Kate started over again. “I’m sorry for actin’ the way I did last time we talked. I was angry and out of line. I shouldn’t have said those things to you. You didn’t deserve my anger.”

She desperately watched Nancy’s face to get insight in what she was thinking or going to respond with, but her girlfriend kept looking at her with the same face, forehead slightly furrowed and biting her lip. Nancy’s eyes flickered away from her for a moment, before they tilted back-

“I’m sorry, too. I was a little mean towards you.” Kate let out an audible sigh of relief and blushed when Nancy chuckled at the action. “I accept your apology, Kate.”

A wave of relief flooded the songbird’s chest, and she held out a hand for her girlfriend to take. Her heart still beat a mile a minute in her chest despite the worst being over with. “I accept yours, too, sweetheart.” To her delight, Nancy quickly clicked her pen closed and took her hand, tucking her notebook under her arm as she pulled her to her feet. Kate didn’t reach out to hug her just yet just in case Nancy hadn’t forgiven her  _ that much _ , but now she felt confident enough to carry on with her original plan.

“Now, I, uh, wanted to show you how sorry I was by… well, it’s a surprise, but you’ll have to follow me to find out what it is.” Kate tried to act coy and hoped it didn’t come out as desperate. Nancy, however, didn’t notice or decided she wanted to know what the surprise was because she kept her hand in Kate’s from where she had pulled her up and gave it a small squeeze.

“Alright.” A hint of a smile graced her features and Kate found it  _ adorable.  _ And irresistible. “Lead the way, then.”

Following Nancy’s command, Kate led Nancy back to her little picnic area, her steps lighter and with a spring in them. She couldn’t help but feel she was getting too ahead of herself because Nancy might change her mind at the last second and take back her forgiveness, or think that Kate was just trying too hard or trying to get into her pants. But she pushed those thoughts to the side with a quick countdown to zero and kept her mind focused on leading Nancy to the right place.

She knew Nancy had caught a glimpse of what she had set up when she heard her soft gasp behind her, and couldn’t help but smile to herself at how clearly pleased her girlfriend was. Kate patted herself on the back: the area, albeit small and just barely big enough for two people, was cleared of any invasive flowers, weeds or other foliage, a nice tarp that doubled as a blanket laid down on the ground with an open lunchbox that had the coveted snacks inside. Kate had even gone so far as to turn on a flashlight and put in a jar covered with wax paper to give them some light to eat to, just like they were at a fancy restaurant.

Kate couldn’t help but think she deserved her own show on DIY or HGTV because it did look good, considering their circumstances. 

“Wow.” Nancy whispered, as if she were afraid speaking too loud would ruin the moment. “This is… really impressive, Kate.” Nancy stepped forward, slipping her hand from Kate’s hold to step onto the tarp to test its sturdiness as if it would fall through with weight on it. Nancy turned back to look at Kate, and Kate felt a sense of pride balloon in her chest. “You did all this for me?”

“Yeah. I felt  _ really  _ bad after our argument, so I wanted to really make it up to you.” Kate had to fight back a blush. “I said things I shouldn’t have, and I’m so sorry, sugar. I really do mean that.”

“It’s- It’s fine, Kate.” Nancy’s smile warmed Kate’s heart. “I understand. It was the heat of the moment. Things get said that we didn’t mean. What makes it all better is us taking responsibility for our actions and owning up to them. And now- hah.” Nacy dropped her head, looking at her notebook for a long moment before holding it up and flipping through the pages. “I had written you an apology note, but now it looks like garbage compared to what you’ve done-”

“Aw, you wrote me a note?” Kate teased, trying to lean forward to get a peek at the page Nancy had her book open to, but the young woman moved backwards and tried to hide it from view. “I would love to hear it.” She really would, although Nancy suddenly seemed unsure when she had no reason to be.

“I mean… it’s kinda sappy.” Nancy admitted, trying to close the book altogether but Kate but her hand on the page to keep it open. She actually  _ really  _ wanted to hear what Nancy had wrote for her.

“Well-” Kate started, trying to convince Nancy that she would  _ love  _ to hear what she wrote about her. “-you can read it to me while we eat some of these snacks I got.”

Nancy pulled a sour face. “Most of the snacks here are worse than school cafeteria food, Kate.”

_ Well, she wasn’t wrong there.  _ “ _ Some _ of the snacks.” Kate emphasized, moving her hand from the book to loop her elbow with Nancy’s. “Now, come take a load off your feet with me, sweetie.” Nancy didn’t protest as Kate dragged her to the tarp and sat down next to each other, thighs gently brushing as they arranged themselves to a more comfortable position.

Nancy laid down her notebook and poked her head over the open toolbox before pulling it towards her, riffling through its contents. Even though they both knew the food would taste bad, they were still feeling phantom hunger pains and craved unhealthy snacks. “What kind of snacks  _ did  _ you get, babe?”

“Well, I know there’s a couple of Twinkies in there.” Kate leaned over to look with Nancy, their hair intertwining. “I think I snagged a bag of Lays…” She pulls the Twinkies out in front of them and lays them on the tarp before rooting around in the toolbox for the chips she had put underneath it. She pulled out a bag that had the word “LAYS” written on it with a yellow backdrop but it lacked any sort of decor other than that, like it was a really cheap, rip-off brand you’d buy at the dollar store.

But that was all they had, and Kate let the bag drop in between the Twinkies and pulled out a couple of nondescript pieces of candies that looked vaguely like Hershey Kisses and some little skittles-looking pieces with a few genuine squares of chocolate in small wrappers. Kate knew they were genuine because she caught Dwight stuffing his face when he found some in Autohaven’s once and he embarrassingly admitted that it tasted something like a mint and offered one to Kate. It was the best tasting thing here, to her.

She’s not sure if Nancy knew about it, so she picked up the handful she had collected and gave all but one to Nancy. “Here. Have you had these before?”

Nancy shook her head, drawing a soft gasp out of Kate. “These ain’t like most of the other food here. This is the closest thing to chocolate we got around these parts. It actually tastes pretty good, too. Try one.” She urged her hand towards her girlfriend and didn’t let up until Nancy relented and turned one around in her palm to look for the opening.

Smiling, Nancy slowly peeled off the silver wrapper around the chocolate and shrugged her shoulders. “Okay. I’m not a big sweets person, but…” She popped the piece into her mouth as she trailed off, and Kate watched as she chewed it thoughtfully for a few moments before her eyes got bigger and she nodded with a pleased hum.

“Not too bad.” She put her hovering hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t accidentally spit candy on her girlfriend. That would be gross and disgusting.“It tastes…” Nancy paused to swallow. “...kinda like a cross between a mint and a Milky Way bar.”

“I know!” Kate exclaimed in agreement, unwrapping her piece once she saw how much Nancy had enjoyed hers. “With a slight taste of stale cardboard?”

“And chicken.” Nancy added. “The Entity always adds a flavor of chicken to  _ everything,  _ and it bugs me. Why does everything need to taste like chicken? Does it even know what chicken flavor is supposed to be used for?” It made it seem like the Entity was one of those old women who put vanilla in everything.

Kate shook her head as she let her piece melt in her mouth. The slight taste of chicken and cardboard didn’t linger for too long, which really made the piece of candy enjoyable. “I don’t know, baby. The Entity always adds weird flavors like it’s a chef or something.”

The brunette giggled, and slipped another piece into her mouth before slipping the rest of them into the pocket of her jeans for later. “The chef at the only restaurant around for miles, so we  _ have  _ to eat there.”

The songbird, as graceful as her voice was, reached over too far to grab the toolbox for a spare piece of chocolate at the bottom and screeched unholily as she almost fell over, but she quickly recovered by laughing at her own blunder. “Nah, if the Entity was the only chef in town, I’d make my own buttermilk pancakes. The only thing I  _ might  _ get off the menu would be these pieces of chocolate. But if it required you to buy something? Then I’ll pass, thank you very much!”

Ripping open a bag of chips, Nancy closely inspected the inside of the bag and found it to be plain and devoid of any horrors inside, except for the most undetailed and plain-looking chips she had ever seen. It looked like someone just cut a thin slice of a potato and flat grill pressed it until it turned into a chip and barely had any curve to it. Fake and really  _ not  _ appetizing, Nancy took an experimental bite and deemed the slightly salty and crunchy taste to be edible, so she nibbled on the rest of the chip.

The pancake comment really made Nancy think about back home. God, she used to love going with Steve, and eventually Jonathan, to a little pancake place on a Sunday morning to grab a few pancakes or waffles, some eggs, bacon and coffee and talk carelessly for however long they sat there for until it got too busy for them. Now, pancakes and bacon were a forgotten luxury that she could never dream of having here. In a way, she was almost forgetting what they tasted like in lieu of not really eating anything since she got here. It almost made her  _ hesitant  _ to even think about eating again because- would she even remember how to eat? Would her body forget such a basic action? Would eating make her sick?

A dull and distant memory made its way to the forefront of her mind before she realized that she was thinking of it: Mike, poorly explaining why there were so many  _ goddamn Eggos  _ in the freezer and her relentlessly questioning him about it until she had found out about Eleven. Of course, she didn’t  _ accept  _ what she was told about the girl at first until she actually saw it with her own two eyes and it couldn’t be debunked. The fact that Eleven was actually who her brother and his friends said she was was almost as unbelievable as how many Eggos the girl could eat in one sitting.

She hadn’t gotten to know Eleven for very long but she liked the girl. It was amazing that she was as well put together as she was having grown up in a lab all of her life until she escaped. When Mike had first told her that Eleven had grown up in a lab, Nancy had thought the girl would be mute, unmannered and somewhat sci-fi looking  _ (maybe that was just her inner Trekie coming out) _ , but she hadn’t really looked any different than any other girl her age… except for her eyes. They were so  _ aware- _ looking for such a young girl, which let Nancy know that Eleven was  _ not  _ to be trifled with, telekinesis powers aside. And the time where she was bald for a while.

_ Actually,  _ Nancy interrupted her own inner monologue,  _ have I ever told Kate about Eleven?  _ She knew her and Steve had told everyone at the campfire about a girl they knew with superpowers, but they hadn’t gone into much detail about her to give her some privacy. Although the lines were kinda blurred now with Kate as her girlfriend: her girlfriend from the  _ future.  _ Given, it was only like 20-something-odd-years into the future, but still… Nancy trusted Kate not to talk to anyone or tell anyone about Eleven. And even if she did end up saying something if-  _ when _ they escaped, there’s a serious doubt anyone would believe her and Eleven might be  _ different  _ in the future.

“Sweetheart?” A voice shook Nancy out of her thoughts, and the girl looked up to see Kate looking at her, concern etched in the lines of her forehead. Nancy realized that she must’ve had that  _ “extreme thinking”  _ look on her face again. “You thinkin’ awfully hard there. You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Nancy quickly assured, taking another chip out her bag that she had forgotten she was holding and eating it in one go. This one had a slight taste of cardboard to it. “Actually-” Nancy started before thinking twice, her rationale getting the better of her and she decided to abort the mission. “-you know what? Nevermind.”

Kate frowned. “No, what is it?” When Nancy refused to say what was on her mind, Kate redoubled her efforts, pinching Nancy on the arm in an effort to make her spill the beans. “No, what is it? You had somethin’ to say, don’t be shy!”

The real question is, did Kate  _ really  _ need to know about Eleven, or was Nancy just bored of shooting the wind with her girlfriend and wanted something else to talk about?

...It was the latter, she decided, and cleared her throat. “Well, I was just thinking… have I ever told you about Eleven?”

“Eleven?” Kate replied, tilting her head to the side. “I’ve heard you talk about them before, if that’s what you mean.” 

Nancy nodded. “Yes, but have I ever gone into detail about her before?”

“No.” Kate had an odd feeling she knew where this was going, and she didn’t want to push Nancy into revealing something she may not be ready to reveal or even  _ shouldn’t  _ reveal. Her sudden eagerness for answers before vanished. “Well, honey, if it’s something about her, you don’t  _ have  _ to tell me-”

“No, I want to. I trust you.” Licking her fingers to get the salt residue off of them, Nancy shifted out of nervousness and anticipation; was she really right in doing this? Should she do this? Her earlier thought process comes to mind, and Nancy decides to stand by her logic and continue on.

“Eleven. She’s-” Words don’t come out as easily as they usually do now, and Nancy finds herself grasping for straws while Kate stares at her with a silent  _ you can stop anytime _ resonating from her eyes. “-she’s this girl my brother and his friends found one day a few years ago. Apparently she was out in the woods alone or something like that.”

“And- you know the Lab? Hawkins Lab?” Kate nodded. “She was raised there.” At her girlfriend’s confused look, she elaborated. “Eleven was abducted at birth by the scientists at Hawkins because she has telekinesis and other mind powers.”

Nancy was surprised that Kate didn’t look as surprised as she thought she would be, but there was still a bit of disbelief on her face that Nancy noticed. “Telekinesis? Like movin’ stuff with her mind?”

Nancy nodded. “Yeah. She’s like 13? 14? And she’s already killed like ten people- bad people! I promise, bad people.” She chuckled at the look of astonishment her girlfriend had on her face when she apparently thought Eleven just went around killing people with her brain. Which actually  _ did  _ sound pretty awesome and gruesome at the same time. _ If Eleven was actually a bad person, I have no doubt that the Entity would pick her up in no time. _

“But I started thinking about her because you brought up pancakes and Eleven  _ loves  _ to eat Eggos. I’ve never seen anybody eat Eggos the way she does. She could, and probably does, live off Eggos.”

“Well, I bet she does!” Kate slipped her hand into hers and gave it a slight squeeze. “Poor thing, growing up in a lab. Is she, ummm…” Kate trailed off, using her free hand to tap at the side of her temple. “...all there, y’know?”

“Oh! Uh, actually pretty much, yeah. I mean, she has a bit of a… limited vocabulary and problems trusting people, but she’s very smart and perceptive. Scarily so. Eleven is 100% the type of girl to know what you’re going to do before you’ve even figured out how to respond back, and then throw a truck at you with her mind for good measure.”   


“Well, if I ever meet her, remind me not to make her mad!”

“No shit! She even killed a demogorgon before. Not this one, but another one. She is  _ definitely  _ not the person you want to piss off. The police chief, Hopper, adopted her, and I’ve heard horror stories about things Eleven accidentally does when she gets angry.” Nancy didn’t know why that statement made her giggle, but maybe it was because she could only see Eleven wearing clothes that were clearly too big for her, curly hair not brushed in days, flipping cars and crushing monsters with her mind and only getting a small nosebleed from it.

“In a terrible way, I almost wish she was here.” Kate broke Nancy out of her wild imagination. “I don’t know how the Entity would like it, but I would love for that little girl to teach that ugly Clown a thing or two, maybe throw his whole caravan right over the brick walls..”

“In all honesty? This place makes the upside down look like a sunny playground park. The Entity would probably have to put her in time out and placate her with Eggos.”

Kate, pausing in the conversation to pick up her Twinkie and unwrap it, had some of her own supernatural memories come back to her as she took the first bite of the odd-tasting treat. That cave she had stumbled into during one of the worst moments in her singing career, when she thought she was doing nothing more than performing for money… now she knows that it was the Entity trying to take her that night. She was foolish for trying to go back to it, she knew now, but at the time her curiosity got the better of her and the place  _ called  _ to her. It was like she couldn’t ignore it.

Or maybe she was just desperate to find a new purpose, a new muse, in her life.  _ And desperation is what I got! Never ending desperation!  _ Now everyone here expected her to perform at her best and at nearly every waking moment in areas she never thought she would have to be good at, let alone know anything about. And if she messed it up, either she or others would die for her mistakes. It was infinitely more stressful than her singing career, but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel that this was her destiny somehow. Not a destiny she would have chosen, but one that was given to her.

“I saw the Entity before I came here. I think.” She added since she couldn’t be 100% sure, but  _ what else could it be?  _ When she looked up from her Twinkie and saw that she now had Nancy’s full attention, she cleared her throat and continued. “I used to be a singer, y’know. I’m way after your time, and not to toot my own horn, but I’m decently famous.” She remembers all the people that would come up to her, ask her for an autograph or tell her that they would travel all across the country just to see her. It was humbling and thrilling at the same time- until the thrill turned to a chill and it all became more about money and popularity,

But that wasn’t what Kate was trying to tell her girlfriend. “But being famous and all that you need time to yourself, y’know? So sometimes I used to take a walk in the woods by my house where I grew up, take time to myself, think about things, maybe even get inspiration for my next song. But not too long- maybe about a year? Before I ended up here, I was havin’ a real struggle with myself. Questioning what I was, what I was doing, havin’ a bonafide mid-life crisis at 26!” The laugh she let out was hollow, and she cringed at the way it echoed in the forest.

“But one time in particular, I was fiddlin’ around with my guitar, trying to get some muse flowin’, and all of a sudden, the cave in front of me lit up brighter than the Fourth of July! At first I thought about getting the heck out of there, but, I guess rather stupidly, I decided to go check it out.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ve done  _ really  _ stupid things in the past, too.” Nancy gave Kate’s knee a pat, and kept it there as Kate continued on. She even scooted up to wrap her arms around the blonde in a sideways cuddle.

“I go into the cave, and it’s really bright in there. And I see all these blue, glowing symbols painted all over the walls and such, and it certainly wasn’t in any language I’ve seen before. But I kept walking inside, and when I get to the end of the cave, it drops off real sudden and… and I tripped over a rock and tumbled in.” The gasp that Nancy let out made Kate feel incredibly  _ stupid  _ when she realized that she had just admitted to making the most classical blunder in all horror movies.

“Did you get hurt?”

“Nah, just a little dirty. But when I fell, the bottom of the cave opened up and what I now know are the Entity’s claws popped out and scraped all along my ankles! I had grabbed onto another rock when I fell and hung on for dear life until it gave up. Then I hauled myself out of there and went the hell home for the night.”

Kate watched as Nancy narrowed her eyes at her. “...You went back, didn’t you?”

“Like an idiot, I sure did.” Kate laughed again, not quite as hollow but it was clearly self-deprecatory. “The second time I went back, the Entity came and got me while I was sitting under a tree. At least I had some sense enough not to go back directly into the cave. If I had good sense, I would’ve never gone back there!”

“Why do you think the Entity tried to grab you in the first place?” Nancy asked, the cogs in her head turning as Kate shook her head. 

“I don’t really have an answer.” Kate responds. She doesn’t have a solid answer, but she has theories. Plenty of them. But then, so does everyone else trapped here, and who is to say that she is right? That any of them are right? That there really  _ is  _ a reason that they’re all trapped here? “I just know that… when I went into that cave, I had a feeling that I had done it before. Gone into the cave and all. But I hadn’t. And somehow, kinda in the back of my mind, I knew the outcome but I kept going anyways.”

“Kinda like a premonition?”

“In a sense, yeah. But… at the same time, it felt like I was just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result; the definition of insanity, but  _ I hadn’t done it before.  _ And now, looking back on it, that should’ve been the biggest clue telling me I needed to get the heck out of Dodge, but I chose to ignore it.” Maybe she  _ was  _ insane. She must’ve been to willingly go back to a supernatural creature that kidnapped her-

“Well, don’t feel too bad. I mean it, baby.” Nancy gave her middle a squeeze, and Kate laid her head on top of Nancy’s for the moment as she counted down to zero. “I went back to Hawkins after everything went down there and knew everything Eleven told me. Alone. Like a dumbass.”

“Oh, you’re not a dumbass, sweetheart.” Kate slipped her hand under her girlfriend’s chin and planted a soft kiss on Nancy’s lips. “You’re really smart and beautiful… even if your fashion choices are  _ atrocious _ .”

Nancy swatted Kate playfully with an air of indigence. “Hey, this was very fashionable for the 80s!”

“And that’s why nobody still dresses like that! It’s horrible- I wish the Entity would give you more modern clothes. Even early 2000s clothes would be acceptable.”

“What? Why is 2000s clothes just  _ acceptable?” _

“Because the 2000s was still part of the 90s, the only decade questionably worse than the 80s.”

“Hey!” Nancy exclaimed, swatting Kate and pushing into her side more in an attempt to push her over and, surprisingly, succeeding. Nancy ended up on top of Kate, and pinned her arms on either side of her girlfriend, breathlessly laughing. “The 80s are great! You don’t know what you’re missing!”

“The 80s were terrible!” Kate fired back, trying to wrestle herself from underneath Nancy (not that she actually minded being under Nancy), but the woman was stronger than she looked. “Mullets, everyone smoked, no internet-”

“That’s better than what I’m hearing goes on nowadays!”

Kate pulled Nancy in for a longer, equally breathless kiss to solidify her point. “Just admit it: the 80s were weird and they sucked.”

“No.” Nancy pouted, and Kate had to bring her in for another peck because she just looked so  _ dang  _ cute she couldn’t refuse.

“Well, I’m sorry, honey, but you’re wrong. But hey-” Kate switched topics. “You’ve never shown me what you wrote.”

At that, Nancy’s pout turned into a blush and she became very bashful. “Oh, well- you never gave me a chance too, really. You threw snacks at me.”

“Well, I’m done for the moment.” Kate watched as Nancy rolled her eyes playfully and moved to sit up, Kate already missing her body heat as she got off.

Nancy pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, stared at it for a moment, and then gave Kate the biggest doe eyes she had ever seen. “Do you  _ really  _ want me to read this to you?”

“Of course I do, honey! I wanna hear what you have to say.” Kate scooted over to where Nancy had taken to sitting on her haunches, shoulders pressing against hers and she gave her a small nudge as encouragement. “I won’t judge no matter how sappy it is. You know if it’s real sappy, I just might cry.”

“ _ Please _ do not cry, Kate. You’re so pretty but you’re an ugly crier.”

“Well, we can’t be pretty all the time, honey- but you’re stalling, go ahead and read what you wrote to me!”

Kate didn’t miss the sideways glance her girlfriend gave her that spoke to her levels of flustered embarrassment, but after a moment it was gone and Nancy unfolded the note and began to read from it.

_ “Dear Kate,” _ she started  _ “I hate when we have arguments. I know they’re an inevitable part of life, but it doesn’t make them any better when we have them, especially in a place like this. I hate making you cry, much less making you upset, and that’s why I try to avoid them as much as possible. But in this environment, it’s almost like the Entity wants us to have things to argue over all the time like some of the others do.” _

_ “I love you Kate, and it really bothers me when I’ve made you upset, even when you may have been in the wrong to begin with. Not that it was all your fault; I know I didn’t help and I said really mean things, too. Seeing you heartbroken even for a moment is worse than all the pain and suffering I’ve experienced here. I would say I’m sorry and accept all the blame for every argument if I could, but it doesn’t work that way. Plus, I’m stubborn as hell, and so are you. I’ve already forgiven you, and I hope you can quickly find it in your heart to forgive me too so we can get back to cuddling. Love always, Nancy.” _

“Awww!” Kate put her hands over her heart at the end of Nancy’s letter. “That’s so sweet! All that for me?”

“Yeah- it’s not  _ that  _ sweet, but-”

“Are you kiddin’, honey? Give me the letter; I want to keep it.”

“Wh- Oh no. No, no, no! As soon as I get back to the campfire, I’m going to burn this.” Nancy started to fold the letter up, but Kate was quicker and snatched the piece of paper from her girlfriend.

“Like hell you are! Sweetheart, I’m going to read this every time I feel sad or lonely so it’ll make me feel better. I ain’t gonna let you burn this.”

“Nooo.” Nancy whined, trying halfheartedly to get the letter back from the songbird, but failing to do so as Kate sat up to tuck it in the back pocket of her jeans. “It’s terrible. Don’t keep it, please, Kate. I beg of you.”

“Nope.” Kate replied, popping the “p” for emphasis. “If it was as bad as you’re making it out to be, you would’ve never read it to me. It’s mine now.”

“Kate…” Nancy trailed off, lips pouting. It was a sight that Kate couldn’t stand to watch, so she pulled her girlfriend to her chest and fell backwards.

“Oh, don’t give me the pouty lips, baby.” Kate soothed, running a hand thru Nancy’s hair until Nancy stopped wiggling against her, and then kept running her hand thru her hair as she spoke. “See, isn’t that better? Your letter was wonderful and I’m gonna keep it because it’s so sweet and all for me.”

Nancy grumbled something against Kate’s chest that she couldn’t hear, but when Nancy didn’t try to reach for the letter again, Kate took it as a sign of victory. Her nails caught against Nancy’s scalp and she heard her girlfriend hum against the action so she kept doing it. 

Both of their breathing even out over time, and Kate fell into the rhythm of stroking Nancy’s hair in tune with her heartbeat. The seconds ticked by in both of their heads, Kate’s in particular. Even though she kept trying to clear her head, there was this nagging worry that the next trial that they would be in together would only bring another argument and all of their happiness and hard work to apologize to each other would be undone. The Entity would find some way to take away their happiness, Kate was sure of that.

She kept counting to zero, but as soon as she could feel a small wave of relief wash over her as she got to that number, the anxiety and worry would come back. If she hadn’t been running her hand through Nancy’s hair still, she would’ve balled her fist up in frustration at her lack of self-restraint. She had never had really good self-restraint to begin with, and thinking back upon it now it had appeared to have gotten worse as she had gotten older. But Nancy… made her try. Try more than she’s ever tried in her whole life, and with decent success.

Is that what dating does to you? Help you to become a better person? Just  _ dating  _ Nancy made her feel like a better person, and she liked that feeling a lot. Would it always be this way, though, even when they were old women in rocking chairs yelling at birds-

_ Woah there, bucko!  _ She’s getting ahead of herself again, but she can’t help it. Now she’s got the image of her and Nancy as old women in a nursing home, holding hands as they sit in their wheelchairs and talk about the good ol’ days. They would talk about how they both went through hell together. How they found each other, how they escaped, how they had started over together, and how they were perfectly happy to live out the rest of their lives together like that.

Kate knew it was not good for her to get her hopes up  _ that  _ high on escaping this place, but apparently her self-restraint is real finicky these days.

Maybe Nancy’s would be better. “When we get out of here…” Kate starts, then pauses for a moment to reflect. What if talking about this made Nancy sad or upset? That was the last thing Kate wanted to do to Nancy, especially now, but she didn’t want to think about these types of things alone. “...would you be alright if I took you on a date?”

Nancy picked her head up from Kate’s chest, and Kate almost laughed at the sleepy look her girlfriend had on her face. “Of course?” She agreed with a question. “Are you asking permission to take me on a date or are you asking  _ where  _ I would like to go on a date?”

Kate giggled, rolling her eyes playfully. “Both, if I’m being honest. Anywhere you wanna go, sweetheart, I’m willing to take ya.”   


“Hmmm…” Nancy thought outloud, and for some unexplained reason that sound reminded Kate that they were, like, 30 years apart. And even if they did both make it out of here, there was absolutely no guarantee that they would end up in the same time  _ at  _ the same time. If they both went back to their respective times, then Nancy would be close to 50 years old by the time they met again.

“...Do movies theaters still exist?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, they still do, but they’re nowhere near as popular as they were.” Nancy blissfully interrupted Kate’s darkening train of thought and sent it flying off the trains into the void.

“Hmm. Well, I would like to live close to a movie theater. Walking distance close. We could hold hands- can we hold hands? I mean, I know being a lesbian is different-”

“I mean, most people won’t care unless you’re in a super old fashioned town. Some older people might look at you funny but they ain't gonna make much of a fuss.”

Nancy’s smile warmed Kate’s heart and was reflected on her face. “Good. I’ve had enough of people giving me odd looks.”

“Well, I think they’re gonna be lookin’ at  _ me  _ more, sweetie. Not to toot my own horn, but I  _ am  _ the famous singer out of the two of us.”

Nancy waggled her eyebrows. “Oh, I think you  _ are  _ tooting your own horn just a little bit, Miss Denson! But honestly, I think I would enjoy showing you off to my family because you are so pretty and famous.”

“I thought the non-famous person was supposed to be the “trophy wife”, not the other way around!”

“Who’s to say that I won’t be famous, too?”

“Well…” Kate trailed off, pressing a lingering kiss to Nancy’s lips as she thought. “...maybe you will be. You  _ are  _ prettier than me.”

Shaking her head, Nancy picked at a stray string on Kate’s shirt. “No, the prettiest thing we’ll have is a cat. A real fluffy cat that isn’t too much of a jerk and will actually let us cuddle with it.”

“I would  _ love  _ to have a cat!” Kate exclaimed, already thinking of her British Shorthair she had growing up and how  _ fluffy  _ it was. She remembers being eight or nine when she first got it and picked up, and to her childish delight the small thing purred and felt more fluffy than real. She was so sad when the thing got diabetes and died at a young seven years old: gave it a proper burial and everything and cried about it for weeks. She missed her little Biscuit.

“But you know what animal I really wouldn’t mind having?” “What?”

Kate gave Nancy a peck on her cute little nose. “A horse.” 

Nancy made a face of peturbedness that Kate couldn’t help but laugh at. “Horses? How stereotypical of you.”

“Now listen, I actually ride horses pretty frequently! I have a black mare named Jasmine and a brown stallion named Jasper. Jasmine is a real sweetheart and will let just about anybody ride her, while Jasper can be a bit picky.” Kate explained to Nancy, who just nodded along with her complete lack of understanding.

“Right before I got taken, we had tried breeding them together but they didn’t take well the first ti-”

“Hey Nancy? Are you out here?” The voice was hard to pinpoint who it belonged to at first asit was so far away, but when it called out Nancy’s name again, they both turned to each other in recognition.

“Is that Steve?” Kate asked, sitting upright, smoothing her hands down her clothes so the approaching survivor wouldn’t think they were  _... up to things.  _ “Certainly sounds like it is.” Nancy, she saw, was doing the same thing, pinning her hair back up from where Kate had discreetly slipped her hair tie out of her hair while she was giving her scalp a massage.

“Yeah, it’s him. Not really sure why he’s coming all the way out here, though.”

The shape of Steve Harrington burst through the light foliage that secluded their spot away from the campfire, his hair a mess as usual and sporting his usual green sweater and scuffed-up jeans. “Nancy- oh, hi guys.” Steve, who had a look of bravery when he first stepped through the grass, now had a soft red hue dusting his cheeks and a look of embarrassment crossed his features. 

Steve took a step backwards. “If you guys are having private time, then-”

Nancy giggled, knowing  _ exactly  _ what was going through Steve’s head at the moment. “No, Steve, get your mind out of the gutter. We’re decent. Anyways, what did you want?”

Looking relieved, Steve took a step forward and his toes poked against the edge of the tarp on the ground. “Whew. Anyways, I heard that, um, you and Kate had an… argument? But it looks like you two made up, so-” Steve had turned around to make a mad dash for the exit, but Nancy was quicker and reached out to snag a loose part of his jeans around his knee.

“You came out here to check up on me?” Nancy asked, and Steve rubbed the back of his neck and muttered out something that sounded suspiciously like a  _ “yeah, whatever”  _ to Kate.

“Awww, that’s sweet.” Kate cooed, looking at Steve and then Kate. “But we made up, sugar, so you don’t have to worry about us.”

“Oh, well then, good, good.” Hand moving from his neck to his hips, Steve looked all around before waving his hands at the girls. “I’ll, uh, leave you to it, then.” He made eye contact with both of them, flashed them a wide but flustered smile, and then left as quickly as he had came, leaving Kate and Nancy alone once more.

Nancy sighed, shaking her head. “We may be all adults, but he still thinks he’s babysitting all of us.”

“Now, Nancy-” Kate scooted back over to her girlfriend and enveloped her in a sitting hug. “-he’s lookin’ out for you. You two are great friends and, honestly, I would love to have had a best friend like that looking out for me when I first got here.”

“I mean, I appreciate it, but  _ I don’t need a babysitter!”  _ Nancy put on a pout, but Kate knew that it was for show. Nancy really did appreciate Steve being the babysitter with a spiked bat- and so did everyone else.

Kate gave Nancy’s side a squeeze. “Was Steve  _ really  _ a good babysitter? Like, did he actually babysit kids?”

“He, like, went along with my brother and his friends when they fought the demogorgon and stuff. And given that they all came back alive and relatively unharmed, I guess so. But he didn’t get paid for it.”

“So he’s the babysitter for kids who want to go fight aliens and otherworldly beings, but not for regular kids?”

“Yes.”

Kate laughed, tears dotting at the corners of her eyes. “I would hire him in a heartbeat. Not to mention, he’s not bad looking…”

“Hey!” Nancy swatted at her girlfriend, but she knew she had no room to talk given that she dated Steve for quite a while. “I know he’s good-looking, but you’re supposed to be  _ my  _ girlfriend.”

“Well, I am your girlfriend, but I know a fine man when I see one!”

“Listen, I know he’s charming and irresistible, but you’ll end up babysitting him more than he’ll end up babysitting everyone else.”

Kate tilted her head to the side. “Is he immature?”

“A  _ little  _ bit. He used to be more so when we were dating, but honestly he’s grown up quite a lot. Fighting demodogs will do that to you.”

“Well, if fighting demodogs don’t make you a man, I don’t know what will. Speaking of which… how good was he at… you know?”

Nancy scoffed, rolling her eyes playfully. “That is  _ personal, private  _ information, I’ll have you know!” She crossed her arms over her chest, and for a moment Kate thought she actually wasn’t going to tell her. But then Nancy uncrossed her arms and leaned in close to Kate’s ear, lowering her voice a few decibels. “He actually wasn’t that bad. A little inexperienced and  _ hasty _ , y’know. But sweet.”

A coquettish smile stretched across Kate’s face. If Kate Denson was known for anything, it was engaging and promoting gossip wherever and whenever it may be.

  
  
  
  



End file.
